I’ve heard people complain that while Lidl cheese is cheap, there isn’t a big selection and it’s not uniformly good. There is some truth in this - sadly you won’t find any of the fabulous farmhouse cheeses being made in Ireland and there are not many speciality continental cheeses either.

Some of the real bargain basement cheeses are not that great tasting either, but then cheap cheese slices are not up to much no matter where you buy them. When Lidl recently had a go at Tesco’s value range, cheese slices were one of the products they highlighted. Lidl pointed out that their cheese slices had 51% cheese, while Tesco’s value slices had only 11%.

Now I don’t know about you but I was quite surprised to learn that any cheese slices were only about half cheese - but at just 11% I am kind of amazed they are allowed to call them cheese at all. Cheese flavoured plastic maybe?

Having said that the selection of cheeses available in Lidl is getting better all the time and last week I spotted some newcomers, or at least cheeses I’d never seen there before.

I bought this Double Gloucester but there is also a Stilton with Cranberry and Wensleydale with Apricot in the range, both of which look very good indeed.

This is my new favourite Lidl cheese.

Though somewhat softer textured than most Double Gloucester I’ve had, it has the lovely mature flavour and the rich butteriness that is characteristic of this cheese. The amount of onion and chive is just right - not overpowering, but definitely there. It’s very moreish.

I haven’t used this cheese for cooking yet - I am thinking it would be wonderful with cauliflower - but it is really really nice with some chopped scallions and garlic mayonnaise as a quick and simple lunch. Which is how I ate it yesterday.

Tags: Best Buys, Cheese, Lunch
Posted in Best Buys | 5 Comments »

I know it must seem monotonous, eggs for breakfast every morning, and yes, we eat a lot of eggs, but this is normal for us and not related to the challenge. There is a lot you can do with eggs, not that we always do much with them - this morning was boiled eggs again, as on Day1, but with 2 eggs for him this time.

Cost: 68c.

Lunch will seem boring too because I had exactly the same as yesterday, while he took a packed lunch of cheese and tomato sandwiches, some peanuts and the last slice of melon.

Cost: €1.72

Dinner was more interesting!

We had soup to start, Cream of Cauliflower and Tomato Soup. It’s hearty soup kind of weather - wet, grey and miserable - and this really hit the spot.

Cauliflower has almost magical properties as a soup ingredient. It creates a nice creamy consistency - people invariably think there is cream in the soup - and it complements other ingredients without overwhelming them. This is how I made the soup:

1/2 head cauliflower
1 onion
1 bulb Chinese Garlic (or a couple of cloves of ordinary)
1 pint chicken stock (homemade ideally, but a cube will do)
A little butter
2 portions of frozen tomato soup
1 scallion and some paprika to garnish

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Chop up the onion, garlic and cauliflower, including the stalks, and sweat for a few minutes in the butter. Don’t let anything brown, just let the veg soak up the butter. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 mins or until the cauliflower is quite soft.

Add the two portions of tomato soup - I add them still frozen and let them melt. Blend everything with a stick blender or in food processor. You may find the soup is too thick at this point, as I did, if so just add some extra stock or water.

That’s it. Sprinkle over the paprika and chopped scallion and eat. This is easily enough soup for four large portions, so we’ll have it again tomorrow.

Cost: Premade soup 50c; cauliflower 50c; onion 8c; garlic 8c; scallion 8c.
Total: €1.24, and there’s some left for tomorrow!

Then we had big bowls of Chili with Cheese Crisps.

Every time I make chili it’s a bit different because I tend to use whatever veg I have to hand. But one thing I have found a remarkably good addition is left over mashed turnip - which of course I have today. You wouldn’t think it would work, but it not only thickens the sauce a bit, it adds a slight sweetness to the final flavour which is very nice.

Here’s how it was made on this occasion.

1 onion
2 red chili peppers
1 tin plum tomatos
1/2 tin kidney beans
1 pack of pre-made mince base mix, defrosted
A cup of left over turnip mash

It’s very quick to prepare because the meat is already cooked. I just sautéed the onion and chili for a few minutes, added the rest of the ingredients and then let it simmer while we had our soup

Because we eat low carb tortillas or rice is out (and yes, I realise fudge is not low carb!). Instead I make some cheese crisps, which were a total revelation to me when I first discovered them. They are literally just grated cheese zapped for a couple of minutes in the microwave, are quick to make, nicely crunchy and go very well with chili. Maybe you’ve been making these forever, but if you haven’t I recommend giving them a go.

To make them, grate the cheese and put it in well separated little piles on a microwavable dish. The ones pictured took 2 minutes to cook on high in my 800W microwave, but it’ll depend on the amount of cheese and the power of the microwave. When done they are flat on the dish and just starting to become a little dry - it’s really trial and error to get the timing right.

As soon as they done, slip them off the dish using a spatula or scraper (they’ll be very hot, so be careful) and leave to cool and become crisp.

3 oz of cheese will make 10-12 good sized crisps. You can make them ahead, they stay crisp for quite a while.

Cost: Mince base €1.26; tin tomatos 25c; kidney beads 13c; chili peppers 23c; onion 8c; cheese 75c.
Total: €2.70

That brings the total for today to €6.94, counting the fudge and some peanuts we ate watching TV after dinner. I am running low on some things though. There is loads of veg left, but no bread and just a very small piece of cheese. But there is €5.05 left to spend, so all is good.

Tags: Cheese, Chili, Eggs, Soup, €50 Challenge
Posted in Recipes, €50 Challenge | 2 Comments »

Are you one of those people poking their heads tentatively around the doors of the local Lidl for the first time? This quick run down of what I consider to be the best buys there may be a useful introduction to the unfamiliar products on the shelves.

I haven’t mentioned veg here because, well, veg is veg. Nor have I mentioned fresh meat, because that’s a story for another day.

The list below is in no particular order.

1. Nuts

All the nuts are good, all the nuts are cheap. Half a kilo of peanuts for €1.39 is a winner, as is the same weight of Cashews for €4.19 - the latter are a bit overly salty so I throw them in a colander, give them a good shake and then store in an airtight jar. Not that they stay stored for very long.

But my pick here is the Walnuts, which are truly of exceptional quality, moist and fresh tasting, and only €1.99 for a 200g pack. You’d pay more than that for the standard dried up and bitter ones on many supermarket shelves.

Best Buy: Walnuts

2. Cheese

You won’t find much fancy stuff here, but what is there is mostly very good. The Vintage Mature Cheddar is a well known bargain, generally priced at 3.79 for a large 400g slab but currently at a euro less than that.

I love the Garlic Cream Cheese in the little 99c tub. This is a very handy pot to have around - a spoonful on top of a steak or floated on Leek & Potato soup or mixed though a sauce adds loads of garlicky goodness with minimal effort.

There is very keenly priced Feta available most of time, but I haven’t bought it in a while so can’t remember the exact price.

The Parmesan may not be the world’s greatest but it’s cheap at less than €20 per kilo, or around €4.00 per wedge, and tastes good to me. Ditto the mozzarella, which is 79c a pack. It comes in two varieties - standard and low fat. Personally I think the low fat one tastes a bit odd, so I stick to standard.

Best Buy: Vintage Mature Cheddar

3. Chocolate

I’ve gone on about this before, but there are some amazing chocoholic treats in Lidl. The Ecuador 70% and the Trinidad 75%, at 1.49 for 100g, are very good dark chocolates which are almost always in stock and they have recently been joined by a Fair Trade 70% chocolate, at the same price, which is also excellent.

I’m a high cocoa junkie, but there are also less dark bars in the same range - branded J.D. Gross - if you prefer a milder chocolate. These are all chocolates from a single region, sometimes a single estate, and are easily as good as expensive luxury brands.

Look out for occasional special edition J.D. Gross bars, which appear maybe once or twice a year. The three best of these are Kul Kul, a 78% cocoa chili chocolate from Papua New Guinea; 81% Arriba from Ecuador which has cocoa nibs in it and is a really intense chocolate hit; and the San Martin 77% from Peru which is an exceptionally smooth dark chocolate.

Best Buy: 70% Ecuador Chocolate

4. Ham, bacon & Sausages

The Prosciutto is, for me at least, the nicest of the ham buys and at €1.99 for 8 good slices it’s a snip. The Serrano at the same price is a wee bit too salty. Genuine Parma is excellent and very well priced at €3.99 a pack.

Probably the bargain of all bargains in Lidl is their bacon offcuts, which are sold as a large and very unappetizing looking lump for €1.99. However simply unwrap and dump the whole lot into a moderate oven for 30-40 mins or so, drain off the fat when it’s done and then chop the cooked bacon into small pieces.

It’s a kind of messy process, but you’ll end up with an absolutely vast volume of bacon bits for half nothing. I freeze these in plastic cups covered with cling film and they come out fine.

The salamis and other continental sausages are brilliant, particularly the Chorizo which tastes better to me that much more expensive deli ones. I’m also partial to the Pepper Salami, which costs 2.99 for 200g - great on pizza, in a salad or just as a snack.

Best Buy: Prosciutto

5. Cereals

Most of the Lidl cereals I avoid - I’ve found them either overly sugary or a bit bland for my taste. However I know people who think the cornflakes are great and who buy lots of the others. The ones aimed at kids look horrific though - what exactly is added to make bright blue cereal?

But don’t walk past, because there is one real star here: Special Muesli Luxury Fruit & Nut - the one in the blue pack. This is an excellent muesli that easily stands up to comparison with much more expensive brands. It has more nuts (and better nuts) and fruit than others that cost multiples of the price. It’s normally €2.49 for a decent sized 750g pack, but is reduced to €1.49 at the moment.

Best Buy: Luxury Fruit & Nut Muesli

6. Biscuits & Cake

They have some good fancy biscuits, but at 39c for a pack of Custard Cream or a large pack of Bourbon Creams, 45c for a pack of Chocolate Chip Cookies and 69c for very good shortbread, all of them perfectly tasty, it’s a great place to stock up on the more everyday kind.

If you’ve teenage boys in the house you’ll know they tend to look on biscuits not as individual items but as things that are eaten in units of a pack, so these sort of prices are particularly welcome.

I have never tried any of the cakes - bought cakes are not generally on my list of favourites - so I can’t really comment on them, except to say that they seem to be popular items in other people’s trolleys (you do look in other people’s trolleys don’t you?).

Best Buy: Bourbon Creams

7. Sauces, Dressings, Mayo etc

I’m not sold on most of the bottled or jarred sauces I’ve tried in Lidl, but then I’m not sold on pre-prepared sauces generally. Lidl often have some flavours of better known sauce brands in stock - recently I’ve seen Pataks and Lloyd Grossman - at prices much lower than are usual, so if you use these there can be bargains available.

The mayonnaise is not bad - it certainly isn’t a premium one but it isn’t offensive, takes flavouring well, and is very cheap. It’s available in standard and low-fat versions.

The exception to my lack of enthusiasm about this section is the Red and Green Pesto. These should quite simply be in every kitchen all the time. The red is (marginally) better than the green but both are wonderful kitchen standbys.

A bowl of pasta with a spoonful of either one stirred through and a grating of cheese makes a super fast, super cheap, super tasty lunch. They also make good dips.

And they are very cheap - just €1.39 each.

There are also tubes of tomato puree which are great value. If you prefer to make your own tomato sauce, as I do, the tins of plum tomatoes at 29c each or chopped tomatoes at a similar price are the business.

Best Buy: Red Pesto

8. Frozen Fish

The frozen breaded fish is as good as any you’ll get, but isn’t something I use a lot of. My favourite buy in this section is prawns. Aside from the ordinary bags of frozen prawns for €4.99 for 500g, a price which makes prawn salad a fairly routine weekday lunch around here, there are others not always in stock which are great buys, notably the €2.99 King Prawns used to make this curry.

There are often fish specials, and they are almost always worth a look. There were lovely fish Kebabs available earlier this year and I’ve just bought some vac packed Scottish Mussels in Garlic butter which look tasty - they’re in the fridge, when we get to them I’ll let you know!

Around Christmas they have lobster at pretty amazing prices, though they are very small ones. If you do decide to indulge you’ll really need one per person even for a starter.

A very handy freezer standby is the pack of two pieces of salmon with spinach in puff pastry. I don’t have the price here, but if you need a tasty dinner involving no effort beyond bunging something into the oven, then these are just the ticket.

Best Buy: King Prawns

9. Bread

Most of Lidl’s bread is fairly routine though good value, but there are two stand out products. One is the part baked bread buns with seeds on top, at €1.69. These bake up in about 10 mins to crusty and delicious little loaves that also look really appealing. The second is the 89c Sunflower Bread, a dense, moist, nutty flavoured brown bread that is not just tasty but healthy also.

The muffins, 9 for €1.69, are also tasty. These have become noticeably smaller over the last few month though - I hate when they do that, just be honest and put the price up!

Best Buy: Sunflower Bread

10. Boring but Necessary Stuff

Tinfoil, greaseproof paper, refuse sacks, freezer bags, kitchen paper, loo roll etc - none of this makes for exciting shopping, but we all need them. They are cheap here, sometime astoundingly cheap, and of good quality.

Cleaning products vary in quality. I’ve not been that happy with the washing machine tablets (though the fault may be at least in part with my ancient washing machine), but the 3 in 1 dishwasher tablets have been excellent, and I live in a hard water area so they are well tested.

However the stand out cleaning product for me is the W5 Power Cleaner, in the pink bottle, which costs €2.79 for 750mls.

This is hands down the best general kitchen and bathroom cleaner I have ever used and it goes a long, long way. It’s brilliant on ceramic hobs. I imagine it contains all manner of dreadful things, the contents list is very vague, but it sure does its job.

Best Buy: W5 Power Cleaner

Tags: Bargains, Best Buys, Biscuits, Bread, Cereal, Cheese, Chocolate, Cleaning, Fish, How to Shop, Meat, Nuts, Pesto, Prawns, Sauce, Specials
Posted in Best Buys | 8 Comments »